Avalanche Game 39 Plus/Minus: Toews Perfection, Miles ‘Chaos’ Wood

As with every game, you take the good with the bad, so time to take a look at the pluses and the minuses in the game against the Stars for the Colorado Avalanche.

+ Toews Takes It Away

One-on-one defending just doesn’t get any better then what we saw in overtime from Devon Toews against Jason Robertson. The skating to stay with Robertson, the stickwork to not allow the Stars top scorer to even come close to getting a shot off, and last but certainly not least, the IQ in the corner. Toews reads that Robertson is getting ready to spin back, and cuts him off with his stick, creating the turnover.

It’s just picture perfect defense. Fantastic play.

Just incredible. Hockey porn.

pic.twitter.com/NgbZFYXQZy https://t.co/eka6aSD422

— Evan Rawal (@evanrawal) January 5, 2024

+ Nathan MacKinnon

What else can you say about him? He’s an All-Star, and that was a no-brainer, but he’s in on everything that the team is doing right now. Is that ideal? Probably not, but that’s why teams kill to get superstars like MacKinnon. The Avalanche have him, and whatever team they’re playing doesn’t. That’s a huge advantage.

+ Jonathan Drouin

Is it time to start talking about a contract extension? I think it is, and I’ll have a bigger piece on that later today. It’s risky, but you have to take some risks in this league.

The fact that he scored twice is huge, but it’s the way he scored. Both goals were in and around the net. You don’t really expect him to be there, but he’s scored a few like that of late. It’s pretty easy to see why he’s earned the trust of the staff. He’s just playing smart hockey.

I think Artturi Lehkonen is still a week or so away from returning, but when he does, Bednar now has the option of putting him on a line with Nichushkin and Johansen, which he wanted to do to start the year. That wing duo hides a lot of the flaws of Johansen, but it’s only possible if Drouin keeps playing like this.

+ Coming From Behind

It doesn’t feel like this team is ever out of a game. That’s a weird thing to say when depth scoring is still very much an issue, but they are the comeback kings in the NHL right now, as they lead the league in third period comebacks. You love that they’re able to pull it off, but you hate that they’re constantly in a position to do it, which brings me to the next point…

– Playing From Behind

We’ve seen this team with a lead in the third period before, and they’re pretty good (outside of that Arizona game). Unfortunately, we haven’t really seen the team play with the lead in the third period much lately.

When they have to play from behind, they’re forced to overplay the top players on the team, and the fourth line essentially spends most of the third period on the bench. That’s really not all that uncommon around the NHL when you’re playing from behind, but it makes life difficult. You also just really don’t want to be playing a guy like Mikko Rantanen 28+ minutes a night in January. That could come back to bite you in the playoffs.

– The Fourth Line

When you’re playing from behind, you can’t really play your fourth line, but they also just weren’t very good when they were on the ice, so maybe keeping them on the bench was for the best. The Avalanche sent Ben Meyers down before the game, likely to maintain flexibility before he becomes waiver eligible, but that meant Kurtis MacDermid entered the lineup. With the team trailing, MacDermid didn’t take a shift in the third period. That’s tough to sustain over a long period of time. MacDermid wasn’t very good, and neither were his linemates.

+ Big Division Win

The Avalanche have lost both games to the Winnipeg Jets, but have beaten the Stars both times they’ve faced them. And both games have been in Dallas. Meanwhile, the Stars haven’t lost to the Jets. Weird stuff.

Any way you look at it, this is a big win. The Avalanche have played two more games than the Stars, but you can look at those two games as the head-to-head matchups, and they’ve taken care of business. Now, they’ll get the Stars at Ball Arena twice down the stretch. We’ll see if they can take care of business then.

+ Miles “Chaos” Wood

Chaos man himself was full steam ahead against the Stars. He picked up an assist in the first period, drew two penalties (one of which the Avalanche scored on), created two 2-on-1’s on a single penalty kill shift, and had a breakaway to start the third period because of his speed. In both games against the Stars, a bigger team, Wood has been a monster. These are the types of games they brought him in for, and he has stepped up.

And to think he was under the weather in the morning…

– Losing Byram

No real update after the game from Bednar, but Byram left the game early in the third with a lower-body injury and didn’t return. His last shift was quick, and you can’t really tell much from it, but we’ll just have to see what happens here. It’s tough to lose Byram right when you get Girard back, because the forwards really benefit from a healthy blueline. It’s also tough to lose Byram on a night where I felt like a good team in the Stars really attacked Jack Johnson and exposed him.